


Brothers in Arms and Chains

by panther



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor doesn’t take Loki to Odin straight away. He wants Loki to be able to gather himself, and appreciates the time to do the same. He finds himself wracked with guilt and feels responsible for recent events</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers in Arms and Chains

As children, Thor is marginally stronger but Loki is far from weak himself. They learn together, both in magic which Loki excels at and in combat which Thor revels in. They make an astounding team, laughing and playing together with Loki throwing up shields of bright purples and blues while Thor expertly shoots blunt arrows at moving targets in the fields. Frigga smiles softly as she watches from the balconies of Asgard and is thankful that despite their status their childhoods are somewhat normal while Odin watches carefully with grim satisfaction. One day his sons will be ready for war. 

 

As teenagers, they drift a little further apart with Thor seeing only the glory in war and Loki finding it less worthwhile. Something pulls at him, tells him he is different, and he puts it down to lacking the same bloodlust that seems to overwhelm his brother. He prefers to learn, to _think_ , and to outwit his rivals without putting himself in any real danger. Odin calls him the protector, more concerned with Thor’s safety in battle than the outcome and says it will work out well in the future. Odin promises that they both have a role to play in things to come. 

 

Now they are grown men and Thor wonders if the Allfather could ever have predicted this in his plans for them. They are meant to fight _together_ , not against one another and yet something niggles at the back of his mind. Loki is not of Asgard. Surely, Odin knew that Loki would find out one day, Thor too, and that they might not react well. There are too many ifs, buts, and maybes to consider and Thor isn’t sure he has even managed to digest the fact that his brother is actually alive, even if they have met once again on the field of battle. Everything had moved so quickly in Mindgard and now he is taking Loki back home to be tried for his crimes. 

 

Thor directs the tesseract so that it takes them directly into his private chambers. He knows they will both be disorientated upon arrival and despite what Loki has done, he remains his brother and, Thor cannot bear the thought of him being gawked at while he is too disorientated to mask his feelings as he would want to. He had, after all, been a King and at the time it was rightfully so. Loki doesn’t make an attempt to move, just peers at Thor through the hair that has fallen down over his face, and it irritates Thor because he can’t read anything in the other’s eyes. It doesn’t sit well with him because it had always been so different, so easy to understand Loki and what motivated him even if Thor didn’t always agree. 

Taking the tesseract from Loki’s grasp, Thor examines it and then considers whether he should wait any longer or take him straight to Odin. It feels like he would be putting off the inevitable and it is not like he is able to remove the gag himself. Thor just isn’t sure that _he_ is ready. He feels so _responsible_ for it all. 

 

Loki makes no attempt to get his attention and Thor still can’t read him, can’t get any insight into what the other God is thinking that might help make his decision. Growing agitated; Thor scowls and leads the other man from the room. People scatter from the hallways as Thor marches through them, pulling Loki along behind in chains, with a face like the thunder he so easily commands. Idly he thinks that if his brother were in his frost giant form he would never be able to move him so easily. His mind flashes back to the frost giants he had slain on the foolish journey that had started this whole miserable series of events. Laufey had one son that Asgard didn’t know about, so perhaps he had others? Thor might have slain members of Loki’s family, caused Loki to do the same without even realising it. Scowling at himself for thinking it, because _he_ is the only brother that Loki needs, he pushes open the doors to his father’s throne room hard enough to make them bang off the walls and come hurling back towards him. Loki slips past him, pulling as far as he can on the chains, and Thor glowers while catching the doors. He thinks he might see laughter in Loki’s eyes, a little of his brother shining through instead of the maniac he had found on Midgard. It is comforting.

Thor presents him before their father and waits for Odin to decide his brother’s fate. The elder tries to remind himself that it matters not what Loki has done; he is still family and they have already lost him once so he convinces himself that his father won’t do anything _drastic_. Their mother sits and watches proceedings with tears in her eyes, straining her neck to see Loki more clearly, and Thor feels smaller and weaker than he has in years, more powerless than when the Allfather took his powers from him. There is nothing that he can do for his brother now and yet he feels that he _should_ be doing something because part of him feels responsible for the whole mess. If he had acted differently growing up, when he had been given the hammer, and in times of boredom then Loki might not have done the things he now stands on trial for. 

He might never have let go. 

The look in Loki’s eyes as he fell of the edge of their world had been the focus of Thor’s nightmares nearly every night since. They had thought him dead, and Asgard had mourned the man who had been their King appropriately. Frigga had locked herself in her chambers for weeks on end. Thor had been banished and cost her one son, sparked Loki’s mind to confront Odin which led to their father falling into the sleep and his mother had been left with a divided family that has yet to be united. Thor’s friends, on Midgard, focussed only on what Loki has done and he can understand that but for him everything is so much more _personal_. It isn’t about justice and revenge for him the way it is for Avengers but about trying to save the Loki he knows is still in there. Somewhere.

It all seems like yesterday and eons ago at the same time. Now, they can only wait to see how the whole ordeal will end.


End file.
